PLAYA VIVA PLAYA ICACOS, MEX­ICO

An Eco-Lux­ury re­sort in Mex­ico where Eco is de­fined by a com­mit­ment to restor­ing the lo­cal com­mu­nity; ecosys­tem and lux­ury is a de­sign aes­thetic com­mit­ted to lo­cal crafts­man­ship at its high­est level and ser­vice is de­ter­mined by the at­ten­tion to ev­ery de­tail to make you feel at home.

It would be re­miss to not men­tion the de­sign and con­struc­tion team be­hind the prized Tree­house room. The ini­tial de­sign was the cre­ation of Kimshasa Bald­win of De­ture Cul­sign based in Chicago. Her in­no­va­tive de­sign pro­vided Playa Viva with the now iconic bamboo cylin­der also nick­named “Tiki Airstream” or “Bamboo Sky­lab.” The unique shape, in-floor ham­mock and use of nat­u­ral and lo­cal build­ing ma­te­ri­als helped it win a myr­iad of awards.

Kimshasa’s pre­lim­i­nary con­cept draw­ings were ex­pertly ex­e­cuted in con­struc­tion by Will Beil­harz and his team from Ar­tisTree. The name is apt in de­scrib­ing how the con­struc­tion of any tree­house in­volves an in­cred­i­ble amount of artistry. To­gether, they have cre­ated a room that is like sleep­ing in a dream and wak­ing up in par­adise. The con­struc­tion of this tree­house in liv­ing palm trees brought Playa Viva full cir­cle to their ini­tial de­sign by Ayrie Cun­liffe in our orig­i­nal Re­gen­er­a­tive De­sign Char­rettes.